Sundered
by DeliriumCanidae
Summary: It was like a scavenger hunt, really. Find all the pieces of him, and put Terra back together. And beat down anyone who got in the way. It sounded easy enough, right?
1. Prologue

**Notes: ** There's a bit of a story behind this fic. I've started posting it a few times, just for new information to come out and render it obsolete, and so I would delete it and rewrite it. And this time, I'm changing the game entirely. This is entirely unlike the previous versions. Hell, the name isn't even the same. Anyone remember Vanquished? Yeah, Vanquished was the prototype to Sundered. One of these days I will use the other ideas I had for Vanquished, but that is probably a long way off.  
**Rating:** G for this chapter, probably PG over all.  
**Word count: ** 1394  
**Obligatory disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters/places. I am not affiliated with Square Enix in any way.

* * *

They had been scattered. After all, they were busy, now. Some of them just with their own lives, some of them training, some of them figuring out what to do about the situation with the thirteen Darknesses. But they had always been the types to jump at the call, regardless of whatever else was going on.

Riku emerged from the small cave, ducking his head and turning sideways, and yet still managing to scrape the top of his head and the backs of his shoulders. The cave hadn't seemed nearly so _small_ when he was fifteen (never mind that he'd hit a growth spurt at some point between then and now).

He barely managed three steps away from the mouth of the cave before he heard an exuberant, "RIKU! YOU'RE BACK!" and he was bodily thrown to the ground as he was tackled in an enthusiastic hug.

"Wha-" Riku's back met the ground, his arms flailing out to pry Sora away, back to a reasonable distance. "Give me a break, Sora! You saw me a few days ago!"

"That was _two weeks ago!_" Sora cried plaintively, still sitting on Riku's chest. "I know you've gotta train Kairi and everything, but you'd think you'd come home _eventually_," he pouted.

Four a moment, Riku looked guilty. Had it really been two weeks already? But Sora's expression softened, and with a grin and a laugh, he tumbled aside to sprawl on the ground as well, one arm curled under his head, the other flung across Riku's chest.

"So how long are you back for?"

Riku cleared his throat. "I'm not sure you could really say I'm back right now. I just came to get you. We need to get Lea, and then meet everyone back at Yen Sid's."

Sora sat up on one elbow, head cocked inquisitively to one side. "Something big going on?"

"Yeah. He wasn't very clear on all the details, but I think he's learned more about bringing back one of the lost Lights."

Laughing, Sora bounced to his feet. "You mean it?!" he cheered, bouncing eagerly on the spot, until he reached down to seize Riku's hands and haul him to his feet. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

* * *

Radiant Garden was coming along well enough. Granted, it was still in a rather obvious state of disrepair, it was just…less disrepair, and that was better than no improvement at all. And the city seemed more active, now that people didn't have to worry about getting attacked as soon as they walked out of their houses.

"So where's he live?" Sora wondered, hands laced together behind his head as he peered around.

At that moment, a billowing cloud of flames erupted over the top of the wall of buildings in front of them, and then died down just as quickly. They stared for a moment, and distantly heard applause.

"Well," Riku started, "I don't know where he lives, but I think I know where to find him."

They made their way down the short flight of steps into the courtyard in the middle of the shopping center, where they stopped, right at the bottom of the stairs. There was a gathering across the courtyard, and in the middle was Lea, lighter in one hand, a bottle of some form of booze in the other.

They watched him bring the bottle to his lips, throwing his head back as he took a swig, and then he turned on the lighter, lifted it up in front of his mouth, and blew.

A cloud of fire rose over the courtyard again, and that time, it took shape. It squirmed through the air, like some sort of serpentine dragon, curling in circles and looping around itself, before it finally erupted into a shower of red and orange sparks, like a muted firework.

Lea bowed as more applause erupted, gathering up the corners of the cloth people had been throwing coins onto as he bent over, before he stuffed the impromptu coin pouch, the lighter, and the booze into his bag. He hefted the bag, swept another bow, and then finally loped across the courtyard to where Sora and Riku had been watching.

"Enjoy the show?" he wondered, in that way that was both innocent and devious and was somehow fundamentally Lea.

"That was awesome!" Sora enthused, pumping one fist towards the sky.

"Gorgeous," Riku added dryly. "Tell me, how much does street performing pay?"

Lea shrugged easily. "Dunno. More than being a Keyblade Master."

"Good point. Guess that means dinner's on you later."

"Wait-what?"

* * *

While Master Yen Sid's office was more than large enough to hold all of them, the primary occupant was of the opinion that the room was still not quite large enough to do so. Despite that, they made do. The tea table and chairs had been dragged back in early in the day, by Donald and Goofy, who had each taken a chair as reward for their hard work. Lea straddled a third chair backwards, arms folded over the back of it and his chin resting on his crossed forearms. Kairi sat in the final chair, facing the proper direction, one ankle crossed behind the other.

Across the study, Sora leaned on the closed lid of a massive treasure chest that had just…never been cleared out of the room for some reason. Riku and King Mickey stood in front of Yen Sid's desk, Riku rocking back on his heels with his hands curled around his elbows, the king with his hands clasped patiently behind his back.

Master Yen Sid, of course, was seated behind his desk, his hands splayed on the surface.

"You all know who the suspected seven Lights are," he began slowly, once he was certain he had everyone's full attention. "Aqua and Ven have been lost to us; we know not where. And Terra, unfortunately, was Xehanort's first vessel. However, recently it has come to my awareness that Terra may not be entirely lost."

He fell quiet for a moment, giving them all a chance to process that bit of information. Their reactions were small, save for Mickey, who straightened up further, his eyes going wide.

"I had a dream. One that, I believe, the Keyblade sent to me. I saw Terra's heart fracture into thirteen pieces. While I do not yet know where the rest of them are, one will be found at Castle Oblivion. With any luck, we will be able to devise a method of tracking the others down from the first piece."

The room plunged into silence after that.

How long had they all been waiting for an opportunity like this, to get a concrete one up on the Darkness? But Terra was quite literally in pieces. Was there even enough of a chance of success for them to hope?

It was Riku who broke the silence.

"What do we do with his heart, once we manage to put it back together?"

"We will put it back where it belongs." Yen Sid breathed out a slow, weary sigh when all he received in response were blank looks. "It stands to reason that not all of Xehanort's Darknesses are time displaced. At least one of them is as much in the present as we are."

"Xemnas!" Goofy realized suddenly. "He would'a been remade as an Other, too!"

"That is correct, Goofy," Yen Side replied, with a near invisible smile. "Xemnas and Ansem were as much Terra's Heartless and Nobody as they were Xehanort's."

"But how would we store it?" Mickey asked. "We can't just…leave it floating somewhere while we look for the other pieces. Gosh, once we pull pieces out of hiding, it'll be hard just to keep them from immediately fading."

"I believe the Keyblades can help with that," Yen Sid said, after a moment of contemplative silence. "They are more than mere weapons, as you all know, and they are intuitive, in their own way. I believe they will be able to hold onto the shards of Terra's heart, at least long enough for them to be stored more permanently." He folded his hands together on the desk. "As for said storage, leave that to me. I expect it will be ready by the time you return from Castle Oblivion. Do what you must to prepare, and then make haste."


	2. Chapter One

**Notes:** As you can probably tell, based on the speed, I already had this chapter mostly written when I posted the first one. I just had to finish the last few paragraphs and proofread it.  
This chapter can also be called 'Shit Happens Really Fast.' Because it does. I am aware that the fight scene is really vague, but after this chapter, they'll all be broken up into smaller groups and so I won't have to keep track of a bajillion characters at once. All you violence lovers, don't worry. Sundered will be like 50 % fight scene, and the others will have a lot more detail.  
**Chapter rating:** PG  
**Word count:** This chapter, 2748. In total, 4142.

* * *

They ventured to Castle Oblivion en masse, because really, what reason was there to leave anyone behind?

Sora peered around at everything, eyes wide in fascination. Logically, he knew he had been here before, and he could more or less remember it if he concentrated on it, though it was usually fuzzy around the details. But standing in front of the massive(ly topsy turvy) castle still left him with a feeling of awed deja vu.

"What is this place?" Kairi asked wonderingly, as she stared up at the massive doors with Sora.

"Used to be a secondary base of operations for the Organization," Lea supplied, as if it was normal, as if he had never tried to kill any of them within the white walls. "Not sure what it was before that."

Riku and Mickey shared a glance, but they stayed silent.

There wasn't much time to say anything else, really, for that was when the doors suddenly opened by themselves.

Sora and Kairi leapt out of the way, keyblades appearing in their hands as they did. Riku and Lea pulled their own keyblades out of the air.

"Stop!" Mickey shouted, before anything rash could happen.

They stopped, indeed, to stare at the figure standing inside the doorway, arms folded over his chest, one hip cocked.

"Uh…Riku?" Goofy hedged.

"Isn't he supposed to be gone?" Sora asked, as he stared at an exact copy of his best friend, if Riku had just let his hair keep growing and stuck with the body suit the darkness had given him.

"I…thought he was dead," Riku managed, after a stunned beat.

The replica snorted an indelicate laugh. "Well, you did give it a decent go." He gave a tiny, vindictively pleased little smile at Donald's startled squawk of, "What!"

"Riku, what's he talking about?" Sora asked, sounding unsure.

The replica laughed outright. "He obviously hasn't told you so far. Why would he tell you now?" He met Sora's gaze, and held out a hand towards him, and the gesture was horribly familiar. "Walk with me, Sora. I'll tell you a story."

"We're busy," Riku ground out, having finally found his voice.

The replica simply shrugged one shoulder. "Then I'll take you to what you're here for. Either way I'm going to have a chat with him."

Sora made the decision himself, stepping forward with only a bit of hesitance. "…Alright. Let's walk."

Lea was the first to fall into step behind them, as they headed into the castle, followed by Kairi, Goofy and Donald, and then Mickey. Riku was the last to follow, after casting one more glance up at the towering spires.

The doors thunked shut heavily behind them.

* * *

The replica had quite the story to tell, as he led them into the bowels of the castle, his arms folded casually over his chest, despite the dour topic at him. He spoke of his last meeting with Riku-Sora's Riku, the real Riku-and his death at Riku's hand. He even mentioned something of his curiosity about where his heart would go, afterwards.

"How are you still here?" Sora asked, when the stream of words finally ceased.

The replica arched one eyebrow. "Vexen was paranoid. He wasn't going to settle for having only one replica. There were over a dozen. It's just only one actually had a heart, at that point."

The procession came to a halt outside yet another set of doors, smaller than the castle's main doors, but nonetheless rather large.

"A heart's natural state is inside someone," he stated wryly, "so mine, rather than going to some sort of beyond, gravitated towards one of the other replicas."

"What happened to the rest of them?" Kairi asked, finally butting in.

He shrugged, and settled his hands on one door. "Dead," he answered easily, as he shoved his weight against the door. "They were essentially comatose at the time."

Sora shifted uncomfortably as he recalled the replica hanging limply from Larxene's grasp, eyes unseeing and mouth agape, and he supposed that such a state could be called comatose.

"I didn't know how to keep the life support going," the replica continued. "I buried them."

There was no time to focus on that bleak idea, because the door swung open, creaking slowly as it did.

Lea drew in a sharp, startled breath, and everyone's attention flew to the room's sole occupant.

"Roxas…?" Sora wondered, but…no, something was off. He looked exactly like Roxas, yes, except that he looked too old. He looked as if he had to be a full decade older.

"Ventus." It escaped Mickey as an awed breath, and then he scampered forward.

"Ah, ah, ah! I don't think so."

Mickey slid to a halt as a portal opened in front of him, darkness roiling out of it in seeping tendrils, and Kingdom Key D appeared in his hand.

"Terrifying," Xigbar observed flatly as he stepped out the darkness, one rifle raised to his shoulder, the other pointing straight at the king.

"_You_ again?" Sora cried out in exasperation, all but ripping Kingdom Key out of the light as he charged forward. He deflected the shot fired at him automatically, and he and Mickey lunged as one, Donald and Goofy trotting after them.

Riku watched for a few seconds, before Way to the Dawn once more appeared in his hand. He heaved a sigh and trudged into the fray.

As he did, something occurred to Lea, and he grabbed Kairi's shoulder. At her startled glance, he pointedly pulled Flames of Loyalty out of the air, and nodded towards Ven. As a bullet ricocheted off the wall behind them, she got his point, and with a determined nod she pulled out Destiny's Embrace. They sprinted around the outskirts of the fight, positioning themselves in front of Ven's motionless form, deflecting every errant bullet.

"You gonna help at all? Even a bit?" Riku asked, more put out than anything, as he back flipped out of the way of a bouncing missile and wound up only a few feet from the replica.

The replica shrugged and reclined back against the door. "You all seem to have it more or less in hand."

Riku rolled his eyes but didn't question the decision, instead opting to just get back to the battle.

It was true enough, though. Xigbar may have been a challenge, once upon a time. But it had been just Sora, Donald, and Goofy then. With Mickey and Riku added to the team, losing seemed like an impossibility, especially with Lea and Kairi making sure they didn't even have to mind their surroundings.

The fight ended with one of Xigbar's rifles clattering across the wall. Sora batted one last bullet aside like a particularly irritating fly, and it plinked harmlessly off the wall before shattering.

Xigbar sprawled on the floor, legs akimbo and balanced on his elbows, his second rifle just out of reach, until Mickey kicked it aside.

Xigbar looked around the room, from one person to another, as if gauging his odds of getting any sort of not-overly-horrible outcome. And then he just laughed, a single, bitter bark of a noise.

"Ah, whatever." His guns vanished. "Boss definitely isn't gonna like this one." He vanished slowly. Not in the boiling darkness of a portal, though, and not in the seeping, creeping, smoke-like dissolving of death. His form seemed to fracture, fragmenting at the edges, until he faded from view entirely.

The group stared in silence at the spot on the floor Xigbar had been, before Sora asked, "What just happened?"

Mickey scratched his head behind one ear. "He got pulled back to his own time, I reckon."

"Gawrsh. You think he'll come back?" Goofy wondered fretfully.

"Aw, who cares?" Donald burst out, planting his hands on his…sides? "We can take him a hundred times over!" he insisted.

"Sure can," Sora agreed with a laugh.

"Hey!" Lea waved his keyblade over his head, and then jerked his elbow in Ven's direction. "Someone wanna do something with this?"

Riku jerked into startled motion, taking a step towards the throne Ven was slumped in, before he came to a similarly jerky halt as he recalled that Ven was one of Mickey's friends. He looked over his shoulder at the king. "Do you want to…?"

Mickey smiled crookedly, and bowed Riku forward. "After you, Master Riku."

Riku flushed at the title, and hurried forward the last few steps to the throne.

That was where things got strange (well, stranger). Riku pointed Way to the Dawn at Ven, but there was no flash of light. Not immediately, at least. Instead, it was as if someone had taken hold of Riku's sword hand and was pulling him around in a half circle, until the tip of the keyblade was pointed not at Ven's chest, but at Sora's. Riku had no time to react, to drag his arm away, and he wasn't sure he would be able to, regardless. A spike of light shot out of the tip of the keyblade, straight into Sora's chest, and both of them crumpled to the floor, much as the last time Riku had delved into Sora's heart.

_Riku looked around slowly, unaware of his friends freaking out back in the outside world. Despite where the keyblade had pointed itself, Riku was not on the shores of Sora's heart, and there was not a single paopu tree to be seen. _

_Instead, he found himself on a cliff, standing beneath the night sky, the grass lush and green beneath his feet. Ahead, he could just see the top of a spiky, blond head protruding over a ledge at the edge of the cliff. _

_Cautiously, unsure of what would happen being in a stranger's heart, Riku made his way forward. Halfway there, he was stopped by, _

_"…Terra?" _

_The older boy's arms were spread out to either side, blocking Riku's path, but his form was translucent and indistinct at the edges, and his expression was blank, his eyes glassy and distant. _

_One corner of Riku's mouth lifted in a sad smile. "Of course." They had come to Castle Oblivion, because the keyblade said a piece of Terra's heart would there. But it wasn't there at the Castle. "You're with Ven." Now it made sense. _

_"I'm a friend." He held one hand out in front of him, and Way to the Dawn appeared. "You see?" _

_Terra's specter stood motionless. _

_"I'm here to wake him up." He pointed the keyblade at Terra. "And to bring you home. It's been long enough, don't you think?" _

_Slowly, Terra's arms lowered. He regarded Riku for a moment, before his already fading form evaporated completely, leaving just a brilliant, deep red point of light, floating at about chest height. _

_There was no spear of light, that time, but the tip of Way to the Dawn did glow, as it pulled the fragment of Terra's heart into it. _

_Riku's smile lingered for a moment, until he brought his attention back to Ven. He didn't know how he was supposed to do this. Already, it was different than when he awoke Sora's heart, when all he had done was answer a few questions, and Sora woke up. But there was no one here asking questions. _

_Then again, Sora had been trapped. Ven's heart really was just sleeping. So…maybe it would be like waking someone up back in the real world. Only one way to find out. _

_He crouched at Ven's side, and gave the blond's shoulder a quick jostle. "Ven… Ventus!" _

_Ven's nose scrunched up in irritation, and he lifted one hand to bat Riku away, with a groggy, "Wha…?" And then his eyes snapped open as he demanded sharply, "What happened to my _voice_?" _

_"Congratulations," Riku offered dryly. "You slept through puberty." _

_Ven looked around quickly. "Where-? Who-? What-?" _

_Arms folded over his knees as he crouched, Riku replied in order, "In your heart. I'm Riku; my friends are on the outside, still. Pretty sure you know a couple of them. I'm in the process of waking you up." _

_Blinking away the last edges of sleep, Ven repeated, "Waking me up?" before he went rigid with a strangled cry of, "Terra! Aqua!" as he abruptly recalled what had happened ten years ago. "Are they alright?" _

_Riku was quiet for a beat, and then he dragged one hand through his hair. "Not really, no. We don't know where Aqua is. Terra-we need to put his heart back together. But to do that, we need to find the pieces of it." He met Ven's eyes briefly, before looking down at his knees. "I know you've been through a lot, and I'd probably want to sleep the rest of my life away, too, but we could really use your help. You definitely know Terra better than we do." _

_Ven stared at Riku with wide eyes. "Terra-his heart? What-no." He took a deep breath, and then nodded once to himself. "Outside. I'll wake up, and all of this can be explained, and I'll help you find Terra." _

_Riku's shoulder's slumped in relief, and he straightened back to his full height, offering Ven a hand up. Ven's fingers met his, and_

The world snapped back into focus, and with a gasp, Riku heaved himself up onto his elbows, off of the floor, Way to the Dawn still grasped in one hand.

"Whoa." Sora, sprawled on his back rather than his stomach, slowly levered himself up with his hands. "That-wow." He blinked owlishly at Riku. "What happened?"

As if in answer to his own question, his mouth fell open in silent shock and his back suddenly arched, so sharply it seemed like it might break, and a ball of glowing, white brilliance surged out of his chest. It hovered between them for a moment, as if contemplating, before it flew across the room, over Riku's head, to disappear into Ven's chest.

"_Sora! Riku!_"

"_Come on, wake up already!_"

Riku blinked his eyes open. Way to the Dawn was still in his right hand, his left curled limply in his lap. Someone had dragged both him and Sora off of the floor, and he found himself slumped back against the throne, his shoulder pressed to Sora's. The others were peering around the sides of the throne at them, like some sort of particularly absurd sideshow.

"Riku!" Kairi knelt in front of them, until she launched herself at Riku to hug him. "You're awake!"

He curled his free arm around her, like an automatic reflex. "How long was I out?"

"Thirty minutes?" she hazarded, and then pulled away as Sora began to stir. She tackled him in much the same way she had tackled Riku. "Sora! Are you alright?"

"Huh-?" Sora yawned until his jaw cracked. "Oh, yeah. Never better."

"Great," Lea butted in. "Now if you could all draw your attention to the conspicuous throne…?"

Nearly as one, the cumbersomely large group turned to look at Ven.

It started with his fingers twitching. And then his shoulder jerked. The minute activity ceased for a few seconds, before his brows furrowed together and he finally cracked one eye open. He closed it again, almost immediately, when he was greeted by the room's blinding whiteness.

"Ven?" Mickey hedged quietly, the single word laced with worried uncertainty.

Slowly, Ven's eyes opened, still squinting in the light for a drawn out moment, before he adjusted to it. "Mickey?" He stared at the king in bemusement, before looking around the room. "Where are we?"

The king shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. "Well, you see…"

"Maybe that should wait until we're back at the Tower?" Riku suggested, as he pulled himself upright with the arm of the throne. "In case anyone else shows up."

"Right." Mickey offered his hand to Ven. With a beaming smile as Ven took his hand, he declared, "Let's go!"

* * *

"You coming?"

The replica, standing framed in the castle's massive entry, stared at Sora. "…What?"

Sora tipped his head to the side and scratched the back of his head. "Well…the castle's kinda empty now. I mean, even with Ven, it's pretty much _been_ empty." He rocked back on his heels as his hand dropped to his side. "Do you really want to stay in an empty castle?"

It was Sora, that time, who reached out one hand. "Come on."

There was a hesitation, trepidation or doubt, or lingering anger. And then the replica stepped out of the castle.


	3. Chapter Two

**Notes:** Well this took a while. Uh...oopsy? But, hey! At least it's coming along faster than Bring Me That Horizon! (I actually have a chapter of that finished, I just need to do some translate-y stuff for it and I am laaaaaazy.) Anyway. Keyblade shenanigans, and talking about the stories actual conflict. Huzzah.  
**Rating:** Uh...PG, for this chapter? I guess? And PG over all, I think.  
**Word count:** 2,005 for this chapter. 6,147 in total.

* * *

There was a message waiting for Mickey, Donald, and Goofy when they returned to the Mysterious Tower. It was coiled neatly, sealed with the royal stamp, and tucked into a bottle. It sat politely on Yen Sid's desk, the old wizard staring at it in vague consternation, as if to wonder why other people could just make things appear in his tower all willy-nilly.

The three of them clustered together to read it, Mickey's ears and tail slowly drooping as they read.

"Gawrsh," Goofy finally got out fretfully.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked, from where the rest of them were pretending not to rubberneck from the other side of the room.

Mickey rolled the message back up and slid it back into the bottle.

"Xehanort already knows about what we're planning," he said, already sounding apologetic. "Heartless have started attacking Disney Castle in droves."

"Do you need us to help?" Sora offered instantly. It wasn't even a second thought.

"No. You stay here," Mickey replied sternly, shaking his head once. "The knights at the castle will already be working. The three of us," he glanced over his shoulders to Goofy and then Donald, "will get the situation under control. The rest of you keep looking for the pieces of Terra's heart. We'll be just fine."

Sora and Riku shared an uneasy look, but there wasn't really any arguing with the king.

* * *

With the king gone, it was up to Yen Sid to fill Ven in on what had happened in the last ten years. To avoid interrupting them, because Yen Sid tended to look at the rest of them like a ramble of disorganized puppies, Riku, Sora, Kairi, Lea, and the replica were banished to the grounds in front of the Tower.

Sora lounged on his back in the grass, his lower legs dangling over the edge of the island. He tipped his head back, brunet spikes getting mashed against the grass, to look at the replica.

"We need to think of something to call you," he decided. "Calling you both Riku would just get confusing."

The replica arched one eyebrow, as if a silent 'really?' But Sora looked as determined as he ever did, even upside down, so the replica sighed and relented with a somewhat resigned, "I defer to your good judgment."

It took only a moment of thought, before Sora suggested, "What about Echo?"

Riku cleared his throat and pinched the bridge of his nose, his tone mildly exasperated as he tried to reason, "Sora, that's not really-"

"It's fine," the replica interrupted. He laughed softly, and there was something…faintly unnerving about hearing Riku's self-deprecating chuckle coming from someone who didn't feel like Riku. "I kind of like it."

"Echo it is!" Sora declared cheerfully, heedless of the somewhat unfortunate implications of the name.

Shortly after that, their attention was grabbed by the opening of the Tower's main door. Lea shoved himself to his feet and jogged over to the steps as Ven stepped out. They regarded each other from opposite ends of the short staircase, and the door thunked shut quietly behind Ven.

"Lea, right?" Ven finally wondered. He reached up to tap his temple with one finger and added a tired, but pleasant, "I remembered."

"Heh." Lea smirked and shoved his hands into his pockets. "And I'm still kickin'."

Ven glanced around as he started down the stairs. "But where's Isa?"

Lea's shoulders rounded forward slightly and his smirk grew rigid. "He's, uh…he's kinda one of the thirteen darknesses."

"…Pardon."

"Let's go for a walk. There's a cellar around back I've been trying to break into. Hasn't worked so far."

Lea flung one arm around Ven's shoulders and began to tow him around the back of the Tower, where the others couldn't listen as he laid bare his involvement with Organization XIII.

"He's going to wish he'd never woken up at this rate," Riku observed, somewhere between amusement and sadness, as Lea and Ven disappeared behind the Tower.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Kairi wondered.

"Yeah," Riku replied, after a beat of hesitation. "We'll find Terra, and Ven will be fine."

* * *

"Hey! It's Riku, right?"

"Yeah." Riku looked up at Ven from where he was reclining on the stairs. "What's up?"

Ven shifted from one foot to the other. "Apparently, I'm ten years out of practice. Up for a sparring match?"

Riku quirked one eyebrow. "In the mood to hit something?"

Ven's small smile was more just an awkward twist of his lips as he admitted, "Maybe a little bit."

With a brief snort of laughter, Riku levered himself up to his feet and hopped to the bottom of the stairs. They walked to the center of the island, shooing Lea, Echo, and Kairi out of the way so that they could have an adequately large, albeit very informal, sparring arena.

They paced around the perimeter of the cleared area to make sure they had enough space, and then they both retreated to opposite sides and sized each other up.

Ventus lifted one hand and reached across himself, setting one hand against his paldron. There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, he stood in full armor, glinting bronze in the light.

Riku stared, and managed a flat, "What."

Ven's helmeted head cocked to one side, ad his voice echoed slightly as he asked, "What? Don't you have armor?"

"Uh, no, can't say that I do."

Ven scoffed. "Really? No one showed you how to access your armor?"

"Well, we didn't exactly have Masters to learn from," Riku replied, shrugging one shoulder. "Sora and I just learned most of it on the fly."

Ven's sigh reverberated almost ominously. "Go fetch Sora, then," he instructed. "Someone should show you."

* * *

"So…we have magical armor. That the keyblade lets us pull out of thin air." Sora was stuck somewhere between 'skepticism' and 'glee.'

"Plus your keyblades can turn into vehicles," Ven added.

Sora and Riku stared at him for a few very long seconds, and then Sora bounced in place in sheer excitement.

"Oh, you have got to show us how to do that!"

Ven was quiet for a minute, as he pondered over how best to explain it. He had, after all, not been a Master like Aqua. Nor had he been up to Terra's level. He had never had to teach anyone anything.

"Try…try to talk to your keyblade," he settled on, somewhat unsteadily. "Find that place in your heart that lets you use your keyblade, and tell it that you're ready to receive your armor."

It was a silent, internal process, of course. But it was a bit more…disorienting than expected. There were no words. Keyblades did not communicate in such ways, as it turned out. It was a flash of colors and flurry of images, a dancing jumble of mish-mashed feelings. It was almost like they were arguing, but it was the most peaceful argument imaginable and left warmth trailing after.

There was a flash of light, and then a second.

"Whoa," Sora gasped wonderingly, echoing faintly. "Riku! You've gotta see yourself!"

"Me?" Riku asked incredulously, with the same tinny echo. "What about _you_?"

Riku's armor was primarily black, gleaming like a darkened mirror, but accented with silver and pale blue. The faceplate of his helmet made him look featureless, and the horns pointed straight up.

Sora's armor looked to be constructed of rose gold, save for the brilliant red and black accents. His faceplate was split into two distinct halves, one over his mouth and nose and one over his eyes, and his horns were angled back and downwards.

Sora hopped in place, pumping one fist into the air and letting out a victorious whoop. And then he paused for a moment, before he asked, "…So, how do we get it off again?"

"The same way you got it on," Ven replied, amusement tinging his voice.

There were two more flashes of light, and Sora and Riku once more stood armorless. …Well, mostly armorless.

Riku blinked down at the dark metal still encasing his left arm from finger tips to shoulder. Sora prodded curiously at the thick pauldron that covered his left shoulder and most of his upper arm.

"So we just…ask the keyblade, whenever we need the armor?"

"Seems to work for me," Ven replied, "but, uh, you might want to put it back on." Lost Memory appeared in his hand as he held it out in front of himself, the blade pointing out to the side due to Ven's reverse grip. "I did ask to spar, after all."

* * *

"Think we'll be able to do that at some point?" Lea wondered, sitting on the wide banister of the stairs as he watched the sparring match.

"You mean the armor?" Kairi clarified, tipping her head back enough to see him from where she sat on the grass, legs folded pretzel-style. "I hope so. Running into battle in my day clothes always sounded kind of…scary." She turned her attention to Echo. "Do you think you could do it?"

He lifted one shoulder in a dismissive shrug. "Probably not. I barely used the keyblade while I was at Castle Oblivion. Not much point; it was empty."

Sora bodily crashed into Riku with a metallic clang and flung him in Ven's direction, only to be slammed into the ground when Riku hooked Way to the Dawn's minuscule wing around Sora's elbow and used him as a counterbalance.

Lea cringed dramatically. "Armor's probably not a bad idea."

Riku ducked under Ven's next strike, stumbled when Sora kicked his ankle, and went crashing into the grass when Ven hooked Lost Memory around his ankle and tugged.

"You mean you don't like being beaten about the head?" Echo asked, tone mildly sardonic.

"Nah, it looks a bit uncomfortable."

Sora cracked Kingdom Key against Ven's ribs and then upwards into his arm, sending Ven's next swing way off course. Ven twisted aside, hooking his arm around Kingdom Key as he did. Sora spun with him, his grip on Kingdom Key tight, until they came to a halt when Ven backed into Riku. Almost as one, they heaved Ven down into the grass.

The tip of Kingdom Key came down to rest delicately on the forehead of Ven's helmeted head. Way to the Dawn's point wedged into the gap between plates, against Sora's underarm. Lost Memory pressed against the plate near the top of Riku's right thigh, just below his groin.

Kairi surged to her feet, clapping, and Lea casually announced, "I'd say that's a tie."

In a brilliant flash of light, keyblades and armor vanished, and Sora reached down to offer a hand to Ven, and hauled him back up to his feet.

"Just like old times," Ven remarked, the words wistful and quiet.

"Hey, come on." Sora jostled Ven's shoulder. "We're going to find them. You're going to help."

"Yeah." Ven scratched the back of his head with one hand. "Now that you bring it up, I think I might know a few places to start looking."

* * *

"So, Disney Town," Riku reflected, "because it was one of the few places all three of you liked equally." He ticked it off on his fingers. "Radiant Garden, because that's where the Organization was originally based. The Keyblade Graveyard," his expression twisted slightly, with the idea's…strangeness, "because that was where the big battle was."

"Wherever Stitch is," Sora jumped in, "since Stitch liked you guys enough to start copying you. Traverse Town, because that's where lost things go. And Neverland, because of the Lost Boys."

"Think that's enough to get started?" Ven asked.

"I don't see why not," Kairi replied. "There are only six of us."

Yen Sid cleared his throat to get their attention.

"You will all set out tomorrow. By the time you return, with any luck, I will have devised a method to store the shards of Terra's heart until they can be reassembled and put back where they belong. Do what you must to prepare, and be ready for tomorrow."


End file.
